gah! busted a suspension rope!

[Cody Croslow]

So, I was playing around with a garda hitch setup on my ultralight backpacker… and busted the suspension on one side, the hitch rings wore right through the sheath on one of the sides, exposing the weight bearing strands underneath.

I need help either fixing this or changing the suspension, and need to know what my options are… I'm looking for ease of set up, and lightness second. I'm not worried about a 4 ounce difference if It means i can set up the hammock 5-10 minutes quicker, and take it down without hassles.

I currently know about (but not anything deeper than they exist):
Whoopie suspension –no idea how these actually work…
webbing
more cabling so I can tie a knot/hitch/whatever

I need something that'll take the normal pull of the HH, as I'm most certainly not using a 30* angle from the tree, something much closer to 15*.

[Joe L]

Just my opinion and I have no familiarity with the HH suspension parts that you have:

(1)Go ahead and get a Whoopie sling suspension from one of the cottage manufacturers, and follow the directions for converting a HH to use the Whoop sling. After some practice with it, you will not only save 5-10 minutes of your current rigging time, you will often rig in less than 5 minutes. Yes, they are easy to use.

Your busted rope is an opportunity to improve your hammock and to lighten your load.

After you have purchased one, learn to make your own.

(2)Rigging your hammock at a shallow angle likely contributed to the material failure. 30 degrees is not from a political negotiation, it is from the physics of loads suspended between two anchors. It is a good angle for reducing the forces on the suspension. You have already seen what happens when the load is excessive, something wears out too soon.

[J Davis]

Made some Whoopie slings from 1/8" AMSTEEL-BLUE "Dyneema" #2500 breaking strength.

Free instructions how to splice here
http://www.samsonrope.com/splicing-instructions.cfm

I also made tree straps and use 1" Dutch Clips from http://www.jacksrbetter.com/HammockSuspensionSystem.htm

I now set up my hammock in about 1 min.

Also made a whoopie ridgeline, still playing with the length/ sag, right now its set at 104-3/4"

For my fly tarp I use a small beaner on one end and 2 ring setup for tension.

[Paul Ashton]

As stated above 30 deg is suggested for really good physics reasons. 15 deg with a 200 lb person will give nearly 400 lb on each line of the suspension, a 30 deg hang will exert about 200 lb per line.

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